In the very beginning, the falconry species Songzier was also mentioned.

Matsuzier, also known as Japanese pine, swallow pine and red-eyed pine, is the male individual of the Japanese sparrowhawk.

It is only more than 20 centimeters long, weighs less than 20 taels, and is only the size of a jay, but it is the most representative bird of prey in the falconry circle.

Whether it is a rabbit, a pheasant or larger prey, the technical threshold required of falconers is relatively high.

But this game is different. To put it more exaggeratedly, you only need to know a little bit about falcon training and releasing to play it, as long as you have hands.

Songzier is small in size, and its main prey is small birds. Common birds of different sizes, such as sparrows, tits, and shrikes, are all within Songzier’s hunting range.

The best quality pine nuts can be used to catch big prey such as adult gray magpies or quails.

After the main falcon in the family shed its feathers and was caged in early spring, Yue Feng’s job of delivering game to the second canteen had to be temporarily stopped.

After all, there are certain things to be aware of when hunting eagles. It is impossible to exploit prey resources intensively all year round. Otherwise, if the base population is wiped out, there will be nothing to catch later.

Spring is the breeding season for prey, especially for falconry. After the spring comes, the autumn eagles are put into cages and falconers will no longer release autumn eagles for falconry.

However, just because big eagles and kites are not released does not mean that little eagles cannot be released either. There are not so many particulars in releasing them.

In this era, sparrows are still one of the four pests. Once autumn comes, they can gather into large flocks that cover the sky. When the flocks of birds fly, they cover the sky and the sun. When they land on farmlands, they are like locusts passing through, causing great harm to the harvest.

By organizing people to relax in spring, summer and autumn, we can obtain a large number of small live birds. Some of them are sent to the second canteen to be made into delicious dishes, and the rest can be used to supply the food needs of caged hawks and sables at home and in the mountain farms.

Yue Feng had already thought of these plans last winter, and now the time has just come.

Having made up his mind to catch Song Zi’er, Yue Feng got busy, and the most important thing was to prepare the lure in advance.

Yue Feng spent an entire afternoon making a cage out of wire mesh. He adjusted the balance on the lid above and then placed ears of grain and food and hung it high up.

When birds see the ears of corn on the cage lid, they will fall down to eat them. When they step on the flap, they will be directly buckled into the cage, and the mechanism will be restored, waiting for the next unlucky person.

Catching birds with a cage is not a very decent operation and the efficiency is not very high, but it can still be used to catch bait.

In one day, Yue Feng caught more than a dozen sparrows, swallows and other birds.

After catching the decoy, Yue Feng immediately found the cage net for catching the little eagle and took it out of the house.

As mentioned before, you need to go up the mountain to catch a big eagle, but you don’t need to go up the mountain to catch a small eagle. The woods by the river are a good place.

The spring raptor migration is a breeding migration and does not last as long as the fall migration.

According to experience, the sub-adult Pinus tabebuia will basically mature within seven to ten days before and after the beginning of summer.

Yue Feng’s idea was very simple. When the time came for a large number of eaglets to pass by, he would focus most of his energy on catching them, at least dozens of pine hawks and sparrowhawks (female sparrowhawks), and continue to expand the size of the falconry team.

Armed with a full set of hawk hunting equipment, Yue Feng strolled straight to the grove by the river where he had caught a kite last year.

Choose a spot in the open forest, hang the single net directly, and put the same old cage underneath. Put the bird as bait in the cage, sprinkle some food and water, and you’re done.

After the arrangement was completed, Yue Feng moved to another place and set up four eagle-catching cage nets around the grove.

For Yue Feng, an experienced person, catching young eagles is as easy as eating and drinking. After taking care of the details like the nets and lures, Yue Feng leisurely left the woods and found a meadow on the river bank facing the north wind and sunbathe.

The climate around the beginning of summer is neither too cold nor too hot. The sun feels warm on my face and I soon feel sleepy.

Yue Feng was thinking about various plans for the future and fell asleep unknowingly.

After sleeping for more than two hours, Yue Feng was awakened by the noisy sounds of jays. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the watch on his wrist.

It’s half past ten in the morning, time to inspect the network.

Thinking of this, Yue Feng stood up, brushed off a few leaves of grass on his buttocks, and walked towards the riding cage.

From more than ten meters away, I could see a grey little hawk hanging under the net of the cage. The three sparrows in the cage were so frightened by the presence of the little hawk that they fled back and forth in the cage.

“Hey! It’s open!!! We’re in luck!” Yue Feng smiled and walked quickly to the front to check.

When Yue Feng approached, before he could make any move, the little eagle made a sharp chirping sound.

The pine eagle was small in size, and the claws and beak had limited lethality. Yue Feng was confident in his ability to handle an eagle, so he didn’t even wear cotton gloves.

He stroked the net cable and grabbed the little eagle in his hand directly from the back. After simply taking off the net cable, he carefully observed the first lucky one in his hand that was caught in the net.

It has a toad-like head, pomegranate eyes, a relatively flat top of the head, and a rust-red chest. From the appearance of its head and face, it can be considered just average without any obvious advantages.

After looking at the flowers on the head, face and breast, Yue Feng glanced at the large feathers on the wings, back and tail feathers.

The large stripes on the wings have been basically replaced, and only four tail feathers have been replaced.

“Damn it, this is just a mediocre start, there are only four!!”

Yue Feng muttered to himself, then took out the eagle jacket from his pocket and quickly tied the little eagle up.

Older falconers are quite particular about the appearance of falcons. In addition to the head, face, wings, breast and claws, the most intuitive way to measure the working ability of a falcon is the number of new feathers on its tail.

What is the reason for this? Actually, it is very simple.

All the spotted pines that return to their breeding grounds in the summer are sub-adult birds that just left the nest last year and are less than one year old.

Adult sparrowhawks migrate ten days to half a month earlier. There are many of these birds, and falconers generally don’t like to tie up old ones.

The old guy is good at catching hawks, but it is difficult to train them. They are small in size and have low physical reserves, and he dare not pinch their fat too hard. If he is a little lazy when training and releasing them, they will easily become difficult to handle.

Compared to the old guys, the young eagles are softer in temperament, easier to train, and with proper selection, their hunting skills are also guaranteed.

Subadult pine ferns have different levels of hunting ability. Some have good physical fitness and work efficiently, so they don’t have to work hard when foraging in the wintering grounds. They eat well, so they naturally replace their old hair early and their feathers are of high quality.

However, those sub-adult birds with poor hunting ability go hungry or full in the wild, eat poorly, and naturally have less feathers on their bodies.

After years of observation and summary, falconers use the number of times a pine eagle’s tail molts as a measure of its ability.

Changing four hairs is called four feathers, changing six hairs is called six feathers. The best quality pine feathers are called clean feathers. The 12 tail feathers are like those of an adult eagle, all replaced with new feathers, with only a small amount of the first year’s hair remaining around the waist above the tail.

According to this standard for determining the quality of pine nuts, the first four pine nuts I caught can only be considered acceptable.

If the claws had not been still dry, strong and powerful, Yue Feng might have let it go on the spot.

After tying up the first pine nut, Yue Feng rearranged the riding cage net and walked leisurely towards the other three nets.

The second place was empty, the third place was empty, and when we reached the last riding cage net set up at the edge of the woods facing the sun, we saw another unlucky guy hanging on the tree.

This little eagle is obviously larger than the first pine nut. The feathers on its back are mainly lead gray, with a black vertical line on its neck and fine horizontal stripes on its breast.

The pupils are yellow, the head is triangular, the claws are dry and bluish-gray, and the handles are quite large.

Wow, he also caught Songzi’s wife.

One sub-adult female Japanese sparrowhawk.

This flower-breasted cat was quite brave. When it was caught by Yue Feng, it only barked twice symbolically and soon became quiet. It opened its mouth and looked at Yue Feng, a stranger, with wide eyes.

Yue Feng held the little eagle in his hand and weighed it. It was about 300 grams, which was within the normal weight range for chest movement.

The last step is to spread out the tail feathers and check the molting status.

Six new feathers are considered acceptable, at least slightly better than the first four.

When catching small prey such as birds, Yue Feng personally prefers to use pine nuts, but this chest-waving method is also useful.

As the saying goes, a big body means strong power. When facing a bird as big as the gray magpie, an ordinary pine nut can be easily injured. However, if it is replaced by a larger bird with its chest swinging, it will be much safer.

Anyway, it’s not like he’s tying up one or two little eagles to play with. Since he caught these six eagles, it was fate, so Yue Feng directly wrapped them with his eagle coat.

The second eaglet was obtained.

After rearranging the eagle net and the riding cage underneath the net, Yue Feng strolled home holding the two little eagles.

There is no need to keep watching this kind of Xiaoying.com. It’s almost noon, so go home and have a meal first.

When he got home, his mother and younger sister quietly asked Yue Feng about his harvest from catching eagles with nets in the morning.

Yue Feng took out two little eagles from his bag with a smile.

“Hey, one has four, the other has six! It’s not great, but it’s okay! Mom, please give me a hand and tie up the legs of these two little eagles first!!”

Yue Feng showed off, and his mother immediately cooperated with him to tie up the two little eagles.

There is no need to use too sophisticated equipment for mainland goods like Shuan.

They tied their legs with two twisted cotton ropes, put on the eagle hats prepared by Yue Feng in advance, and tied them to the eagle bar under the eaves. The two new recruits had completed the “enlistment” ceremony.

After taking the little eagle home in order, Yue Feng, his mother and sister had lunch. After eating and drinking, he took a nap on the edge of the kang. At two o’clock in the afternoon, Yue Feng strolled out again.

Early morning and late evening are better time periods for catching young eagles. The weather is good during the day and most eagles are on the move, so there are fewer prey and naturally fewer that run into nets.

When we arrived at the falconry site, we looked around the four nets and found that, as expected, they were all empty, with no sign of the little eagle.

Yue Feng used the water bottle he brought with him to add some water to the decoy bird in the riding cage, and then found a shady spot under a tree and waited patiently.

Before it gets dark, there is a peak of young eagles entering the forest. Yue Feng continues to inspect the nets.

There was another new harvest at the cage net location where the first pine nut was found in the morning.

After seeing the appearance of the little eagle clearly, Yue Feng was secretly delighted.

Haha, I caught the best! (End of this chapter)